Cool News
ShoWest Review of FINDING NEMO + a slight modification about that INCREDIBLES trailer!
Hey folks, Harry here... As you know, FINDING NEMO screened at the Paris Hotel during ShoWest in incomplete form. And last time, I told you that a trailer for THE INCREDIBLES was going to be attached to every print of FINDING NEMO. Wellllll, got a call today from Steve Jobs, who wanted to clarify and not have expectations over-shot. There will be a very brief teaser for THE INCREDIBLES attached to FINDING NEMO, but as he stated, the film will be 15 months away from release when we see FINDING NEMO, so they won't have much rendered by that time, and instead what we'll get is a taste, a treat, a bit of chocolate with a tad of coconut, but we shant be getting the almond quite yet. So don't think you're going to be getting a 3 minute trailer for THE INCREDIBLES, cuz you ain't.
Meanwhile... S.H.A.D.O. has signed in with his full review of the rough cut of FINDING NEMO. A film with still quite a bit of work and touches to do, so in all likelihood, the miniscule nitpicks that he has, will be tuned to perfection, as it always is, by the time the film comes out this May... tick tock tick tock... can't we skip April and the rest of March? Dagnabbit! Also, if you want to stay completely pure on the film, I suggest leaving, he does disclose some spoilers that we haven't heard before about this film, and if you do leave, don't check the talkbacks on this film for fear of discussion of the spoiler elements. Here ya go...
Lets recap the evening at the Paris Hotel sneak preview of Finding Nemo.
In the lobby were baskets of goldfish crackers and gummy fish.
With ShoWest in full swing, it seems fitting that the Paris Hotel's 'Theatre des Arts' which has a digital projection system installed would show a movie. And what better than one created digitally. Oddly enough, though, none of the four speakers made mention of that fact.
Anyhow, back to the showbiz stuff. The movie was due to start at 7.45, but instead didn't start until about 8.30 because Robert Goulet and the Disney Dancers (fourteen of them) had to do a production number out of 'you've got a friend in me.' That delayed the start by 4 minutes. Then Disney CEO Dick Cook comes on and tells us, basically Pixar has pulled Disney's ass out of the fire on four occasions and has reaped about $1.7 billion in box-office rewards for the mouse studio. He then intros a short Pixar tribute that shows snippets from the other four movies. The reel ends and Cook intros the man who saw the future and made it his, Steve Jobs. Steve-o doesn't really say too much, except runs down the list of upcoming pixar movies (nemo, the incredibles and next lassiter offering, cars). No mention of anything beyond those - interesting. He also added Pixar had only been able to produce a great movie every 18 months or a good movie every 12 months, but now he hopes to make a great one every year. He then intros John Lassiter, calling him the Spielberg of animation. Like Jobs, Lassiter has no place in his life for dressing to impress and walks onstage sporting a sports jacket and hawaiian shirt.
Lassiter tells us about how working at Pixar is a dream come true, about his animation school and mentoring program and, most importantly, his plan to have his kids survive off of theater lobby snack food -- especially drinking root beer using red vines as straws. He goes on to tell us about how nemo came to be (apparently it started as a sketch of a whale and two fish in the director's office) and how after listening to the director's pitch, he was sold at the word "fish." He intros Andrew Stanton, who really didn't say that much, by this time the movie was delayed 40 minutes:
The show begins with a short from 1989, "Knick Knack," which actually fits in with the movie.
Finding Nemo begins by introducing us to Marlin and his wife (she's in this so briefly, i forgot her name as soon as the title came up), two happily married clownfish who have just moved into a spacious new sea anenome.
Mom is a little worried that the place is too big and is worried about her brood of 400-plus spawn (one half named marlin jr, the other named mom jr., and one is named nemo)
Then tragedy strikes (in the form of a barracuda if i know my fish), and after being knocked out, marlin wakes to find himself alone and the proud father of just one spawn, nemo. then the title appears and the movie begins proper.
OK, right off the boat, literally, this movie looks gorgeous. The fusion of animated mediums -both computer and traditional hand drawn - works well together and pushes state oof the art even further.If ever a subject was right for the medium, this is it.****The ocean springs to life with all manner of aquatic life, all rendered in cheerful pastels and moody hues of blue, blueish-green and grey.
Back to the movie. We start off with Nemo trying to wake his dad so he can get to his first day of school. Naturally, having witnessed the demise of his family before the titles, Marlin is a little wary of sending Nemo off to school. We learn that Nemo isn't quite complete, his right fin is smaller than his left fin, which his dad refers to as his 'lucky fin.'
So off little Nemo goes to school and whilst on a field trip, he gets caught up with the kids from the wrong side of the coral. It's during a dare the worrisome Marlin shows up and while he's arguing with the other kids, Nemo takes off and there his troubles begin.
The whole feel of the movie so far is if da Vinci had learnt computer animation while going to cartoon school. The characters and environs look real and even lush, but not too real; the fish, after all, do have cartoonish faces, save perhaps for Bruce the shark durng the chase scene.
Albert Brooks by the way is perfect as Marlin. Ellen DeGeneres is also excellent (if i'm not mistaken, she gets the majority of the lines), and casting Barry Humphries as Bruce was inspired.
I don't want to spoil the movie by giving away too much, so I'll keep the rest short and sweet.
Nemo disappears and Marlin goes looking for him. Marlin runs into Dory the short-term memory-impaired fish. She joins his search. They find a clue as to Nemo's whereabouts and pursue that lead. Along the way they run into a forest of jellyfish (very impressive animation-wise); a hungry Angler fish (sure to give the under-6 crowd shivers); and the star of the show, Bruce, the 12-step great white who takes the duo into a sunken uboat where they can join his gang (i think it was called Fisheaters anonymous). Anyhow, while there something goes wrong and a pretty cool chase ensues (this may be a little too scary for kids).
Meanwhile, we have Nemo enjoying his new life in a (SPOILER) dentist's aquarium inhabited by several fish, including Gill (Willem Dafoe) who
is always looking for a way back to the ocean. Nemo by the way, isn't long for the aquarium, as he has been promised to the dentist's niece, who has a habit of killing fish.
Thats it for the plot summary. anymore would ruin it.
Now, what works and what doesn't quite do it.
first, this isn't the searchers, or even the bicycle thief, but it is a pretty good search movie.
the characters need more flesh, especially those in the aquarium. there are a lot of characters introduced, somehow i smell spinoff (hopefully a bruce spinoff). nemo and the aquarium fish need to have their relationships developed. dory is the more interesting of the searching pair. the one character(s) that are gotten down perfectly are the seagulls, they make for great comedy.
the animation, while superb and real looking, isn't quite all there yet. the faces on marlin and dory at times looked pasted on, like they didn't quite go with the body. it is however better than monsters though. and, as we were told before the show, the movie is still a work in progress - towards the end we got a lot of wireframe animation, especially during the escape from the fishing boat).
the transitions between key scenes was a little rough.
the voice talent is excellent. i didn't know ellen degeneres played dory until i told after the movie, and the turtles were dead on - laid back surfer types looking for the next big wave.
the character of the little girl at the end (also a big part of the aquarium subplot) reminded me of a grown up Boo and i'm pretty sure she had the one eyed doll from monsters in her picture. she was also intro'd with the psycho shower music.(i think thats where it came from)
the humans, didn't look so good, which is a shame compared to the attention the sealife got. they seemed too cartoonish.
the score, what i noticed of it is subtle, though i'm sure there' going to be a couple of randy newman songs placed in there somewhere.
if i were to place this in a list of best to worst pixar movies (there is no worst, just not as good) i'd put it at number four. i shan't tell what came out ahead of it.
oh yes, there is an outtake at the end of the movie, sort of.....
-
+ Expand All
-
Not to sound like a snob (actually, I don't give a shit if I do), but after seeing Spirited Away who could give a shit about this type of soulless animation anymore? And how does Lassiter go from worshipping Miyazaki to doing things that aren't even in the same ballpark?
-
Yay for nemo and yay for me
-
I think it's a dead cert that, what's his name, Cliff the mail man will be, cause he's been in every pixar feature. But who else, i know they mut have started voice recording by now.
-
Mar 08, 2003 5:57:04 AM CST
So is this movie from a 12-month or 18-month time frame?
by gheorghe zamfir
From the sounds of it, Jobs and Lassiter don't sound too enthused about the movie or working with Disney anymore, or maybe I'm just reading into it too much.
-
Compared to Spirited Away most animated films are tired and unimaginative. Hey, it's Comedy Fish, now it's Comedy Superheroes, Comedy Cars, so on and on. I can't wait for Howl's Moving Castle.
-
Really, I did. He seemed like a very nice, intelligent guy, though I couldn't help but think of that TV movie where he was played by Noah Wyle. I'm amazed he calls Harry up like that. What a strange world.
-
When you go into a movie, watch it for what it's worth. If you go into every animated film you see and compare it to Spirited Away, you'll never enjoy anything.
-
"Compared to Spirited Away most animated films are tired and unimaginative" --- Yeah, but then most animated films are trying very hard to avoid the PG ("Puke Galore") rating. Not to really knock Miyazaki since he did create Nausicaa, but.. his latest works, including Spirited Away, have been imaginative but rather boring, failing to have even the respectable pace of intellectual fascination that his past titles like Laputa were able to accomplish. In fact, I think the most recent good Ghibli flick, in my opinion of course, was Mimi wo Sumaseba, and that wasn't even a Miyazaki flick. Oh yeah. They gotta drop ol' Hisaishi; he's a one-trick pony who spent that trick on Nausicaa and recycled it in Laputa.
-
Lets see, it'd probably be Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, Toy Story , Bugs Life. No, no, Monsters Inc, Toy Story 2, Bugs Life, Toy Story...oh fuck. All the PIXAR movies are good, so if this is four, it's probably pretty goo, too.
-
All these stories about Jobs being one big ego in the 70's and 80's is probably true. Like the legend that Steve Jobs screwed over Steve Wozniak on the splitting earning income for their work on solving the PCI problem at Atari of which Jobs end up keeping the larger portion of money. At least Jobs brought Apple back to rising stock life support when the company's about to go into shithole when he came back in 1997. This page tell the facts like it is: http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/hackers/steve-wozniak/
-
has anyone noticed that in movies and tv shows all of the normal everyday people just always, ALWAYS, seem to use iMacs? or is that just me?
-
sent this to harry earlier, though he may not run it, anyhow, this may upset some of you.
remember knick knack, the story of the snowman in the nome, alaska snow scene who desperately wants to be with the buxom babe on the ashtray from miami? well, seems disney has had its little censor snippers have their way with the pixar classic. the buxom blondes points of interest are now just virtual paint across a flat plain. as for the mermaid with the starfish nipple covers? same thing happened to her. just thought you guys ought to know. -
You can never make a point without someone else making a weird counterpoint. Clonetrooper - I don't go into every animated movie comparing it to Spirited Away. It's just that I've been enjoying Pixar's films less and less since Toy Story and am beginning to find their premises quite boring. On the other hand I've been enjoying Miyazaki's films more and more, and was really hyped up about how imaginitive, surreal, and unique Spirited Away was. Then I compare the two experiences retrospectively and come to the scientific conclusion that compared to Spirited Away most of the other modern animated films I've seen seem boring and unimaginitive. And to Mr Asparagus - what can I say, it's a subjective thing, I feel that Miyazaki is getting better and better, and enjoyed Spirited Away even more than Studio Ghibli's previous releases, including Laputa, which I also think is great.
-
Mar 08, 2003 10:55:11 PM CST
If you don't like a movie just say so. No more Bullshit about ho
by clonetrooper
I stress that point enough.
-
No. I can say what I want. And what I said was valid enough.
-
Miyazaki produces movies that are artistic, fresh, sincerely drawn from life and make you think. Pixar and Disney create movies that are caricatures, and caricatures of caricatures of life. I don't understand why everyone kisses pixar's ass so much. I find their movies overly flippant, predictable, and overladed with jokes that are thrown in every two seconds. The animators and other artists at Disney are very talented, but the people making the real decisions, the directors, story people and the top executives are too concerned with politics and not with the quality of the movies. The only reason Treasure Planet was made was because it was in some old contract that the directors signed many years ago. In order to keep them happy, the executives threw hundreds of artists on board of this massive train wreck which ended up losing over a 100 million dollars. I have no doubt that the directors will just be shifted onto a different movie, while all of the artists not responsible for this disaster are fired. The head of story on the "emperors new groove" which losts millions and millions of dollars was shifted onto "Bears". The two guys directing Bears have never even directed a movie before. Disney is the only company in the world that puts hundreds of millions of dollars into the hands of guys that have no directorial experience. After disasters such as the "the emperors new groove" "Atlantis" and "treasure planet" all of the top brass were just shifted onto other projects and virtually all of the artists lost their jobs or will lose their jobs as is the case at the Florida studio. You wouldn't believe the good old boys network that exists at the Disney studios. They go around all day kissing each other's asses and when a movie fails, they come up with bizarre excuses for why the movie failed. I can promise you that not a single person took any of the blame for "Treasure Planet" failing.
-
Mar 09, 2003 1:06:53 AM CST
The reason Atlantis, Groove, and Treasure Planet failed...
by hellokittyvibr8r
It is because Disney's audience wants cute, fluffy, and heartwarming. Anytime Disney attempts to listen to what the fans say and do something other than a musical cartoon and do something serious, they are rewarded with no box office and endless complaints they are simply ripping off something already done in anime or in some other media form. It's not in Disney's interests to do ANYTHING original and creative anymore. On one hand you have the vocal fans who criticize anything new as being a rip off of something else, the other hand complaining they aren't doing more song and dance classics like they did 50 years ago, the right foot bitching about wanting more mature fair, the left foot whining about keeping it totally clean for the children, and the ass belching out right-wing complaints that Disney subversion is destroying our children...
-
What a lot of people here seem not to understand is Disney is NOT Pixar. Two seperate companies, Disney distributes their films and are in a partnership which may be terminated by Steve Jobs. They have a 5 picture deal and after "Cars" Pixar can renegotiate with Disney or go elsewhere for distribution. I read on another thread that Apple owns Pixar... no, Steve Jobs is majority stock holder and CEO but it is not in any relationship with Apple. As for Pixar's work, to me they are amazing artists. They tell children stories that can be enjoyed by adults... Miyazaki is absolutley amazing as well but what is the point comparing both Ghibli and Pixar tell different kind of stories in a different way and there is room and to be honest neccesity for both. Nemo looks great but what I am excited about is the Incredibles. Brad Bird is directing, if you don't know he directed The Iron Giant (probably one of the greatest American Animation Films in the past 25 years. He also was executive consultant on the Simpsons during the golden years. He also directed an animation called "Family Dog" (only true animation geeks know of and appreciate) for Amazing Stories... it was one of the best animations ever done. The idea of Bird and Pixar is exciting. Brad has a VERY different way of storytelling then Lassiter so I think it will be a very different film for Pixar. As for the Pixar films trailing off since the Toy Stories? That makes no sense, it was TS, Bugs Life, TS:2, Monsters how do you trail off when they aren't back to back? To me Monsters is right up there with Toy Story and will be timeless as well. Oh... Spirited Away better win the Oscar this year or there is no justice in the universe
-
Sorry, just two words that come to mind. Jesus, I hate reading in these talkbacks now. A creative team such as Pixar makes something great, or at the very least enjoyable, and most assholes on this site find it necessary to make absurd comparisons or cast aspersions for the very purpose of sounding intelligent. Pixar gets praise because they have created enjoyable films about likeable and somewhat relatable characters. Spirited Away was great. But we're not talking about the same fruit here. Regardless, I've made myself a target perhaps, so I'm gonna have a smoke. -d
-
When the fuck did Pixar use traditional hand-drawn artwork in their movies?
-
Someone PLEASE tell me what was so good about Spirited Away!!! This was the most painful cinema experience of MY LIFE with mind-numbing story, direction, animation, pacing blah blah. People were falling asleep in their seats, and these were uncomfortable, ripped arthouse seats. Did I somehow go to a different movie, also called Spirited Away? The relentless compliments this film gets is driving me craxy!!!!!
-
Mar 10, 2003 9:53:15 AM CST
Attention Hollywood: please spare us anymore lame surfer dudes p
by lance rock
It's been done to death. Tho, I guess the 10-year-olds think it's a hoot.
-
Seems people don't quite get the fact that Disney does not own Pixar nor do they have a lot of say on this Pixar films. If you do any research you will find Disney itself says it has minimal input on the Pixar films. Pixar is not an off shoot of Disney, anyone remember Disney's attempt at CG? A little film called Dinosaurs? As for the guy with the "When the fuck did Pixar started using hand drawn artwork". Ummmm all CG films use it the same way live action films use matte paintings. Look at Shrek, Ice Age and the Pixar films and a LOT of shots use digital matte paintings for back drops.
-
As for Pixar being Apple people that's the stupidest thing I ever read. I won't readdress the issue since I did in an earlier message. As for any CG films or effects being done on Apple..... ummmm yeah, the accountants may use it to write memos on. Almost all the major studios use Linux on PCs. So sorry about the reality but in a real large production Apple's are about as useful and as a paperweight.
-
He went straight to the characters for the critical points. Not good, as this has been the root of goodness on most Pixar projects. I hope this fella is wrong about them not being developed enough.
-
I don't want to make this a computer vs computer issue either. But I don't like people who know not what they speak spewing false information .. Apple machines are not used in ANY large effects house as 3D or compositing machines. ILM switched over to a Linux based network for their 3D, switched over from SGI mind you not Apple. Weta Digital uses all Linux for their 3D and rendering on the LOTR movies, PDI uses Linux and SGI, ESC (doing most of the Matrix effects).. yup sorry once again all Linux boxes. Don't talk about what you know, if what you "know" is based on what you hope really is.
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7200081436.html
http://kennethhunt.com/archives/000018.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-983898.html
the last one shows that Pixar bought a linux server that has 1024 Pentium 2.8 Xeon Processors, and they switched from SUN not Apple.
Not trying to flame you Fett but I just dislike someone ranting on topics without any true breadth of facts and just spewing rhetoric. Apples are great desktops for EVERYTHING except 3D and compositing. I could go into the specifics why but I am sure everyone else has no urge to read my nerdy tech talk. Make no mistake I like Apple stuff but they are a mid range desktop machine and what highend 3D requires is much more powerful then what Apple CURRENTLY has available. Things change you never know but that is the way it is as of now. -
Mar 10, 2003 3:42:42 PM CST
"So sorry about the reality but in a real large production Apple
by minderbinder
They're used pretty often for previz (SW 1 and 2), and sometimes for final shots, I know there were at least a couple in TPM. I think RR used them for the FX in SK2 as well. Obviously they're not used a ton, but they are out there.
-
Yes you're right they are used in those capacities in most big studios, as well as some matte painting.
-
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-945310.html
Fett, you have no idea what you are talking about. Contact any PR Rep from any of the effects companies and they will tell you very simply almost all of their 3D and compositing is done on Linux and some Irix. You CANT render on an Apple (almost all of the houses render using a program called Pixar Renderman) and Renderman has not been ported to Apple. So this thread ends here.
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 325 total posts 322 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 106 total posts 106 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 63 total posts 60 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 74 total posts 58 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 159 total posts 51 posts
- If the Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day drops her pen, pick it up, but don’t look at her legs or else it will be on your record. -- 47 total posts 41 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 161 total posts 34 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 488 total posts 33 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 121 total posts 23 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 70 total posts 20 posts